Julisa Lopez - Unpacking the Mascot Debate: Native American

Journal article

Stephanie A. Fryberg, Arianne E. Eason, L. Brady, N. Jessop, Julisa J. Lopez
Social Psychology and Personality Science, 2020

Semantic Scholar DOI

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APA Click to copy
Fryberg, S. A., Eason, A. E., Brady, L., Jessop, N., & Lopez, J. J. (2020). Unpacking the Mascot Debate: Native American Identification Predicts Opposition to Native Mascots. Social Psychology and Personality Science.

Chicago/Turabian Click to copy
Fryberg, Stephanie A., Arianne E. Eason, L. Brady, N. Jessop, and Julisa J. Lopez. “Unpacking the Mascot Debate: Native American Identification Predicts Opposition to Native Mascots.” Social Psychology and Personality Science (2020).

MLA Click to copy
Fryberg, Stephanie A., et al. “Unpacking the Mascot Debate: Native American Identification Predicts Opposition to Native Mascots.” Social Psychology and Personality Science, 2020.

BibTeX Click to copy

@article{stephanie2020a,
  title = {Unpacking the Mascot Debate: Native American Identification Predicts Opposition to Native Mascots},
  year = {2020},
  journal = {Social Psychology and Personality Science},
  author = {Fryberg, Stephanie A. and Eason, Arianne E. and Brady, L. and Jessop, N. and Lopez, Julisa J.}
}

Abstract

While major organizations representing Native Americans (e.g., National Congress of American Indians) contend that Native mascots are stereotypical and dehumanizing, sports teams with Native mascots cite polls claiming their mascots are not offensive to Native people. We conducted a large-scale, empirical study to provide a valid and generalizable understanding of Native Americans’ (N = 1,021) attitudes toward Native mascots. Building on the identity centrality literature, we examined how multiple aspects of Native identification uniquely shaped attitudes toward mascots. While Native Americans in our sample generally opposed Native mascots, especially the Redskins, attitudes varied according to demographic characteristics (e.g., age, political orientation, education) and the strength of participants’ racial–ethnic identification. Specifically, stronger Native identification (behavioral engagement and identity centrality) predicted greater opposition. Results highlight the importance of considering the unique and multifaceted aspects of identity, particularly when seeking to understand Native people’s attitudes and experiences.